Call out the home guard

As the sun rises each morning, George (not his real name) wakes to a spectacular view of the London skyline from his window. To one side, the glimmering glass and steel towers of Canary Wharf; to the other, the shining obelisk of the Shard. At £250 a month, his rent is almost half the going rate of a room in a shared private home in this deprived, but desirable, part of the east end.

‘I really like it here,’ says George, who is 25 and works for a web design consultancy. ‘It is an excellent location and the only way I could afford to move out of home.’